Everlight looks to global recovery in LED demand - Taipei Times

Everlight Electronics Co Ltd (????), Taiwan’s biggest LED chip packager, yesterday said a spike in penetration of LED TVs worldwide and ris...

Everlight Electronics Co Ltd (????), Taiwan’s biggest LED chip packager, yesterday said a spike in penetration of LED TVs worldwide and rising demand for LED lighting would likely breathe new life into the troubled LED industry this year and lift the company’s factory utilization.

In line with the industrial recovery, Everlight’s factory utilization would rise gradually over the next few quarters from the current 60 percent to about 70 percent, company spokesman Liu Pang-yen (???) told investors during a teleconference.

“We believe LED TV and LED lighting will be the two major drivers for the whole LED industry this year,” Liu said.

The LED TV penetration rate is expected to jump to 70 percent this year from 43 percent last year, helped by sales of low-cost LED TV sets, primarily in emerging markets, Liu said, citing an unspecified market researcher’s forecast.

“As the price of low-cost LED TV sets, launched by a South Korean firm lately, is close to that of LCD TV sets, we believe that will provide a good chance to boost the penetration of LED TVs” and thereby LED chips, Liu said.

Penetration rate of LED lighting would grow to 25 percent in 2015, from 3 percent last year, Everlight predicted.

The new LED lighting business would account for 15 percent of Everlight’s total revenue this year, up from 9 percent last year, Liu said, maintaining his earlier estimate from August last year, after the firm launched its own-brand LED lighting including street lamps in July last year.

However, the price of LED products and services would continue to show double-digit percentage annual drops, he said.

INCOME HALVED

Everlight’s net income was more than halved to NT$420 million (US$14.2 million) because of the falling price of LED packaging services, compared with NT$913 million in the second half of 2010 and NT$886 million in the first half of last year, according to the company financial statement released at the weekend.

For the full year last year, Everlight’s net profits plunged 44 percent to NT$1.31 billion, or NT$3.14 per share, from NT$2.32 billion, or NT$5.52 a share, in 2010, on oversupply and falling demand amid the global economic slump.

Everlight planned to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.5 per share based on last year’s net profits, Liu said, which would mean a payout ratio of about 80 percent.

Everlight shares rose 0.77 percent to NT$65.3 yesterday, hitting their highest level in more than three weeks. The benchmark TAIEX inched up 0.11 percent.

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